Adee's new build
- Thread starter amfynn
- Start date
amfynn
New member
Thanks Pierre...yes, I need to prune.
thanks
Thank you.
amfynn
New member
thanks mate!
prop-frags
SPS Slave
Adee,
We been huge fans of your setup since you first started your thread.
The TOTM is so richly deserved! It is a fantastic inspiration to all of us in the hobby.
How is the majestic doing? Is it bothering many of your corals? We absolutely love our regal, and are looking for another angel - the majestic would be soooo awesome.
Keep up the great work!
We been huge fans of your setup since you first started your thread.
The TOTM is so richly deserved! It is a fantastic inspiration to all of us in the hobby.
How is the majestic doing? Is it bothering many of your corals? We absolutely love our regal, and are looking for another angel - the majestic would be soooo awesome.
Keep up the great work!
amfynn
New member
Thank you Mike & Terry!
The Majestic and the Regal & Asfur are all doing fine. I try and keep them well fed, less urge to pick on my sps. I do have some zoas which they nip at, nothing serious though. So hope they all behave themesleves for the years to come!
Floyd R Turbo
Either busy or sleeping
Congrats on TOTM! I remember your scrubber build from your first post. Not many people run a sunlight-based Algae Scrubber, I've only seen a handful...
amfynn
New member
Thank you!
I know, only know a few myself that just have the sun for their ATS. IMO its the best!
thanks, give it a go!
Floyd R Turbo
Either busy or sleeping
I agree it's good for energy savings but for scrubber efficiency I disagree. Not trying to be a critic here, just pointing out a few facts, and a couple things to think about, not necessarily for only you but also for anyone else looking at this setup and thinking about doing a similar one
A 48x48 single-sided scrubber is big enough to handle almost 100 cubes of food per day if it were properly built. I would put yours at more like more like 40 cubes/day, knocked back because it's on glass, and because it's non-vertical, and because it doesn't get sunlight 18 hours/day. Since it's oversized (because I doubt you feed that much) the algae tries to spread out across a larger area and it doesn't grow as efficiently (bushy green being the best), plus the bare glass substrate doesn't allow it to form a very strong adhesion so you can't put enough flow across it or it will detach (35 GPH/in, and putting 1700 GPH over that I would surely think would cause detachment). I know from reading this thread that you started with a screen but it became too cumbersome to remove and I can only imagine trying to lift a 24x48 mat full of algae so I understand!!!
If there was a way to take the sunlight and redirect it so that you could utilize a vertical screen you could probably build one using the new feeding guideline which is 12 sq in of screen lit on both sides with a total of 12 watts total lighting, per cube of food per day. I'm guessing (can't remember if you posted how much you feed) that you're probably somewhere in the range of 10 cubes of food per day, which would be 120 sq in of screen with 60 watts of light on each side for 18 hours/day, or better yet, 120 watts per side and 9 hours/day. You would also have a screen that is more easily removed and cleaned remote from the tank. I recall you said that you trap the algae drippings with filter material and then have to run other filtration to take out the yellow tint, of course this is the major downfall of scrubbers in the past that did not have removable screens, and probably the #1 thing that people who have never run a scrubber before think about when knocking on them.
If you take the new feeding-based guidelines and apply them to your current setup, you would be able to use a smaller surface area and then you could use a screen again, if you were somehow able to focus the same amount of sunlight onto the smaller area. That would be able to handle more flow and you could reduce your reliance on other filtration needs to catch rouge algae and yellow water. Oh also yellow water, if you're getting that between cleanings, is a sign of the roots f the algae dying because they aren't getting enough light, which is also a downfall of under-lit and horizontal/slanted scrubbers.
However at this point that would probably be more effort than it's worth. I guess if it ain't broke, don't fix it, right?
Oh I just thought of another way to use the sun, and this might be worth considering. Why not use a bank of photocells to provide power to an LED array? You would still be using the sun to power it, but would be able to utilize a more efficient vertical screen system. Done right, you could run the LEDs much less than 18 hours a day, you could just pipe the power straight to the LEDs and whatever sunlight intensity you get would get translated (with some loss, of course) right over to the LED array. Just thinking out loud. No brain filter applied!
A 48x48 single-sided scrubber is big enough to handle almost 100 cubes of food per day if it were properly built. I would put yours at more like more like 40 cubes/day, knocked back because it's on glass, and because it's non-vertical, and because it doesn't get sunlight 18 hours/day. Since it's oversized (because I doubt you feed that much) the algae tries to spread out across a larger area and it doesn't grow as efficiently (bushy green being the best), plus the bare glass substrate doesn't allow it to form a very strong adhesion so you can't put enough flow across it or it will detach (35 GPH/in, and putting 1700 GPH over that I would surely think would cause detachment). I know from reading this thread that you started with a screen but it became too cumbersome to remove and I can only imagine trying to lift a 24x48 mat full of algae so I understand!!!
If there was a way to take the sunlight and redirect it so that you could utilize a vertical screen you could probably build one using the new feeding guideline which is 12 sq in of screen lit on both sides with a total of 12 watts total lighting, per cube of food per day. I'm guessing (can't remember if you posted how much you feed) that you're probably somewhere in the range of 10 cubes of food per day, which would be 120 sq in of screen with 60 watts of light on each side for 18 hours/day, or better yet, 120 watts per side and 9 hours/day. You would also have a screen that is more easily removed and cleaned remote from the tank. I recall you said that you trap the algae drippings with filter material and then have to run other filtration to take out the yellow tint, of course this is the major downfall of scrubbers in the past that did not have removable screens, and probably the #1 thing that people who have never run a scrubber before think about when knocking on them.
If you take the new feeding-based guidelines and apply them to your current setup, you would be able to use a smaller surface area and then you could use a screen again, if you were somehow able to focus the same amount of sunlight onto the smaller area. That would be able to handle more flow and you could reduce your reliance on other filtration needs to catch rouge algae and yellow water. Oh also yellow water, if you're getting that between cleanings, is a sign of the roots f the algae dying because they aren't getting enough light, which is also a downfall of under-lit and horizontal/slanted scrubbers.
However at this point that would probably be more effort than it's worth. I guess if it ain't broke, don't fix it, right?
Oh I just thought of another way to use the sun, and this might be worth considering. Why not use a bank of photocells to provide power to an LED array? You would still be using the sun to power it, but would be able to utilize a more efficient vertical screen system. Done right, you could run the LEDs much less than 18 hours a day, you could just pipe the power straight to the LEDs and whatever sunlight intensity you get would get translated (with some loss, of course) right over to the LED array. Just thinking out loud. No brain filter applied!
amfynn
New member
True that!
I've simplified the scrubber for my ease of use to clean, it would be more efficient to add some shade cloth, infact I have some left overs that I intend to drape over there as throw away sheets.
My opinon, is that sunlight still offers the propper spectrum and as well as having high PAR values = excellent growth for algae....hence the popular myth where people are terrified if sunlight touches their tank (for fear of algae rearing its head). While my ATS design is not the best for efficiency, I will agree with that....I'll still argue its light source though is still the best.
amfynn
New member
Thank you.
ayobreezie
New member
I love the natural look of tanks lit by the sun.
amfynn
New member
Thank you.
amfynn
New member
Some experimental frags under LED lighting
Some experimental frags under LED lighting
I've been debating trying out an LED set-up to see what colors I can get....here are some pics two weeks into using my new LED units strung over a section of my nursery tank, a mix of exisiting frags and some new one's I got from a fellow hobbyist.
Some experimental frags under LED lighting
I've been debating trying out an LED set-up to see what colors I can get....here are some pics two weeks into using my new LED units strung over a section of my nursery tank, a mix of exisiting frags and some new one's I got from a fellow hobbyist.
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